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30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Design Game Design

Game Writing: Storytelling through Video Game Design

Write and design your own games; develop ideas, character and plot to create a compelling storyworld. (Made with Unity).
Rating: 4.2 out of 54.2 (576 ratings)
3,695 students
Created by Jenny Hide, Gwen Davies
Last updated 11/2020
English
English [Auto]
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

What you'll learn

  • Write and design games.
  • Understand what’s unique about writing for games.
  • How to create in-depth gameworlds.
  • What contributes to a memorable narrative.
  • How story is conveyed through games.
  • How to develop your idea from conception through to story.

Requirements

  • Your preferred writing tools!
  • A desire to entertain through story and games.
  • Willingness to explore ideas and exercise your imagination!

Description

The course will help you to design and write your own games - learn how to generate and develop your ideas, how to structure a story-rich game, and how creating a narrative and storyworld will enhance all games, even those that are not story based! 


Learn to create a compelling storyworld for your video game by developing ideas, characters and a memorable narrative. You’ll be given knowledge and tasks to cement and practice what you’ve learned.


Create Immersive Storyworlds

  • Understand how writing for games differs from writing for other media.

  • Learn which aspects of a game contribute to a memorable narrative.

  • Discover how story is conveyed through games.

  • Practice developing an idea from start to end.


Storytelling: Arguably the Most Important Aspect of Game Design.

Games that are “story-rich” have a deep story to uncover as you play the game, and have an extra dimension compared to other forms of media in that the player themselves is a part of that story.

The storyworld makes up so much of a game and it is communicated in many different ways. It’s everything from the artwork and the audio design to the dialogue between characters and the player themselves. As a game designer or a game writer, you are responsible for shaping this world and conveying it to the player.

 

Content Overview 

This course aims to help you develop your skills as a designer of games. We’ll talk about what makes games a unique form of media, how to tell good stories, how to generate ideas, and how story can be conveyed through games (spoiler: there are LOTS of different ways!). These are the core sections of the course, and we’ll be adding bonus sections soon.


Story structure will be the first bonus (coming soon!) and each new section will provide new ways to improve your game design techniques.


Each of the course videos is made using the Unity game engine, and we communicate information within this game setting.

 

As well as video lectures, this course contains ‘Reflection’ moments where we ask you to pause and think about what your answers to specific questions would be, “Missions” where we ask you to do some writing (and then show you our own example), and worksheets to guide your ideas.

 

We also encourage you to share your ideas and give feedback to others.

 

Once you complete this course, you’ll be able to design story-rich games using various different methods to convey your ideas.


Who this course is for:

  • Game designers and Indie game developers wanting to integrate captivating story in their own games.
  • Aspiring and professional writers looking to develop stories in the context of games.
  • Game enthusiasts who are curious about storytelling in games.

Featured review

Tony Munoz
Tony Munoz
113 courses
40 reviews
Rating: 5.0 out of 5a year ago
I'm preparing myself to create a new Indie Game. I'm completely cover in coding and art. But the story -as in any movie- is something elusive to my expertise. This Course provided me with the reference about where to start and focus for my game creation. 100% recommended.

Course content

8 sections • 40 lectures • 2h 24m total length

  • Preview02:31
  • Preview03:37
  • Game Mechanics
    02:13
  • Why Story is Important I
    03:13
  • Why Story is Important II
    02:52

  • Preview02:09
  • Preview02:40
  • The Difference Between Story, Plot and Narrative
    03:07
  • What Fuels a Plot?
    05:10

  • Introduction
    01:22
  • Generating Ideas
    02:37
  • Generating Ideas Missions
    03:35
  • How to Communicate Ideas Effectively
    05:12

  • Introduction
    01:11
  • The Goal and Mechanics
    04:03
  • Characters and Dialogue
    04:40
  • Visual and Audio Design
    07:38
  • Delivery
    09:43

  • Introduction
    01:17
  • What is Structure and Why is it Important?
    10:14
  • Branches, Anchors and Emotions
    05:50
  • Structure Models: Beginning, Middle and End
    06:39
  • Structure Models: Linear Structure Guidelines
    09:41
  • Reflection: The Structure of a Game/Level
    03:14
  • Mission: Beginning, Middle and End
    02:26
  • Mission: Linear Structure Guidelines
    03:33
  • Structure Models: The Hero's Journey
    04:58
  • Mission: The Player's Journey
    02:14
  • How to Use Structure when Developing Your Game
    03:24

  • Introduction: The Player P.O.V.
    03:23
  • Exploring Characters
    03:14
  • Mission: Build a Protagonist
    02:30
  • RELIC Character
    04:06
  • Mission: Build an Antagonist
    01:05
  • Populating your Game
    02:48

  • Introduction: What is Genre?
    01:55
  • Genre Characteristics
    02:40
  • Your Game and Audience Expectations
    01:21

  • Final Thoughts
    00:20
  • Bonus Lecture: Jenny's Other Courses
    00:17

Instructors

Jenny Hide
Indie/Freelance Game Developer
Jenny Hide
  • 4.1 Instructor Rating
  • 828 Reviews
  • 5,669 Students
  • 3 Courses

I'm Jenny, a freelance and indie game developer with over 6 years of professional programming experience. I have a Masters degree in Physics with Astrophysics and a PhD in Quantum Information. 

I've released a number of games and enjoy teaching and sharing the knowledge I've gained. I've worked with General Interactive Co. to code and design a winemaking tycoon game called Terroir and a mystery/adventure/management game called Chinatown Detective Agency. I'm also making Cultivate: Before Time, a farming meets mystery game with time travel and dinosaurs!

My Udemy courses are aimed at those learning game development - whether that's coding or game design.

Gwen Davies
Freelance Writer
Gwen Davies
  • 4.2 Instructor Rating
  • 576 Reviews
  • 3,695 Students
  • 1 Course

I'm Gwen, a freelance writer with experience writing across various formats, including games, film, VR and novels. My mission is to write high quality and original entertainment that explores interesting points of view with depth. 

I'm currently working as a writer on a game project with General Interactive Co., as well as writing a short film for VR, and writing a novel thanks to Arts Council England funding. 

Some of my writing successes include: 

…placing in the semi-finals of the prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship (twice);  

…placing in the finals of the excellent Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition;

...been long-listed for the Penguin Random House WriteNow scheme;

...achieving ACE funding. 


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